Monday, 14 February 2011

The Scotsman Abroad | The Heroes and The Hype

There are a lot of big hitters to look forward to in 2011. From my particular perspective, The Wise Man's Fear can't get here soon enough; I'm as excited about The Republic of Thieves as much as the next guy - though with certain reservations; and while to my eternal shame I'm a mile behind on A Song of Ice and Fire, the notion of new George R. R. Martin certainly sets my heart a-fluttering, so certainly A Dance With Dragons is high on my annual bookish bucket list.

But you know what? Nothing beats new Joe Abercrombie. Simply because the guy's more timely and reliable than the aforementioned array of capital fantasy names, the hype train behind his latest - and greatest - seems somewhat perversely like it lacks the momentum of the long-delayed. Which leaves me wondering just how incredibly easily marketers could manufacture the sort of pant-wetting excitement that greets and any all news about the trio up there.

Anyway.

The Heroes, out now from Gollancz in the UK and Orbit in the US, is handily Joe Abercrombie's best book, and though I'm afraid you won't be seeing a review of it here on The Speculative Scotsman, sell-out speculator that I am - and as Scotch as spring broth - I did indeed review it. In fact I reviewed it way back when, in November. But the overlords at Strange Horizons (bless them every one) have only just pressed the big red PUBLISH button on my rather lengthy piece.

Reading it over now, with a few weeks and months between me and it, to my surprise I'm pretty pleased with how it came out: so please, do pop on over and have a look at the review in full.

Oh, I'm excited about The Crippled God, alright - and I should totally have mentioned it amongst the lustrous company above - but as you'll see on Sunday, Marduk, I've got rather a lot of catching up to do before I can even think about finishing The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Say... nine books worth of catching up? :/

For shame, I know! Really someone should take me out back and put me out of my literary misery.

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